The guy’s got a point, but I don’t think it can be fully generalized as that “you don’t need fast travel, otherwise your game is boring.” I think there are legitimate instances where you just need to get to places quickly. I think the problem is less that fast travel exists, and more that a lot of games nowadays put so many fast travel points that you can go through the entire game without having stepped foot in 99% of the map.
I like the concept of “limited fast travel.” Witcher 3 is a good one, where you can fast travel, but only if you’re at a signpost and you can only travel to other signposts. Hollow Knight does this as well. I’m also pretty partial to how Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom does it, where you can fast travel to any shrine at any time, but shrines are never perfectly where you want to go - you’ll still need to make a 1 minute jog to get to the town/point of interest that you’re trying to get to.
The guy’s got a point, but I don’t think it can be fully generalized as that “you don’t need fast travel, otherwise your game is boring.” I think there are legitimate instances where you just need to get to places quickly. I think the problem is less that fast travel exists, and more that a lot of games nowadays put so many fast travel points that you can go through the entire game without having stepped foot in 99% of the map.
I like the concept of “limited fast travel.” Witcher 3 is a good one, where you can fast travel, but only if you’re at a signpost and you can only travel to other signposts. Hollow Knight does this as well. I’m also pretty partial to how Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom does it, where you can fast travel to any shrine at any time, but shrines are never perfectly where you want to go - you’ll still need to make a 1 minute jog to get to the town/point of interest that you’re trying to get to.